Partnerships in peace operations: emerging and promising future orientations of peace support operations in Africa

Abstract

In recent years, the African Union (AU) and affected communities have collaborated to eliminate the challenges faced due to armed conflicts. These challenges have posed significant mixed outcomes as pockets of negative peace have developed in the form of protracted community violence in Africa. While extant partnerships are lauded and are yielding essential insights into the situation and interaction of actors and the changing nature of the conflict context, there is the increasing realisation that focusing exclusively on military solutions to armed violence on the continent only deals with a part of the problem. Using selected field missions in Africa which manifest collective efforts in several conflict and post-conflict situations this paper considers the changing nature of peace operations in the context of the emerging multipolar world order, posing questions such as: What is the motivation for African countries to contribute troops in current peace operations? What form will future missions take? And, how will regional and global structures pool their resources for crisis situations?